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Home , Mevlana Museum, Mevlevi Order, Sufi whirling, Supplication

International Journal of Religious Tourism and

Volume 2 Issue 2 Article 2

2014

The Museumification of ’s Tomb: Deconstructing Sacred Space at the

Rose Aslan California Lutheran University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Aslan, Rose (2014) "The Museumification of Rumi’s Tomb: Deconstructing Sacred Space at the Mevlana Museum," International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 2. doi:https://doi.org/10.21427/D7T41D Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol2/iss2/2

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. © International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage ISSN : 2009-7379 Available at: http://arrow.dit.ie/ijrtp/ Volume 2(ii) 2014

The Museumification of Rumi’s Tomb: Deconstructing Sacred Space at the Mevlana Museum

Rose Aslan California Lutheran University [email protected]

Tourists and pilgrims from across and around the world flock to the tomb of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), one of the greatest poets and Sufi masters in . Since 1925, the Turkish government has relentlessly struggled to control Islamic influences in society and to channel people’s devotion to the memory of Kemal Ataturk (d. 1938) and his secular ideology. This article argues that by restructuring the layout and presentation of the tomb complex of Rumi, and putting the sacred space through the process of museumification, the Turkish state has attempted to regulate the place in order to control people’s experience of the sacred. The Museum functions simultaneously as a sacred place and a tourist site and the role of visitors as pilgrims and tourists is ambiguous. This article examines the history and politics of the space in order to illustrate how it functions as a site of contestation and how visitors act as important agents in the construction of the space’s meaning.

Key Words: Rumi, Turkey, tourism, pilgrimage, sacred space, space and place, , , museumification, secularism, Ottoman history

Introduction Turkish evokes Sufi ceremonies that would have taken place there long ago. I passed by the Immediately upon arriving to the Turkish town of decorated gravestones of descendants and followers of , I made my way to the most popular site in the Rumi. At the end of the passageway, I came across the town, Rumi’s tomb, officially known as the Mevlana elaborately embellished tombs of Rumi and his father, Museum, to learn more about the ‘best-selling poet in which were covered in richly embroidered clothes America’ (Ernst, 2003:181). On my way to the draped over the tombstones and surrounded by a visual museum, I passed by an impressive Seljuk-era banquet of calligraphy, arabesque and and then joined the line at the ticket office to purchase geometric designs. This section of the tomb had been a ticket for the museum. I then passed through a lavishly preserved and restored, but at the foot of the turnstile and a metal detector and entered into a gate before the tomb stood a guard whose job was to delightful courtyard, which was full of foreign visitors keep visitors moving along. and Turkish families milling around. In the large courtyard, there were luscious gardens and in the centre an intricate fountain. I could catch the overwhelming scent of jasmine and roses wafting from Fig. 1 Visitors enter through the turnstiles after purchasing tickets and enter into the courtyard of the Museum complex the foliage. As it was the height of the Eid holidays, the before approaching the main attraction of Rumi’s tomb. area was packed with visitors and I had to weave my way through the crowd to reach the humble doorway to the shrine.[1]

Upon walking into Rumi’s after a hi-tech machine swathed my shoes in small plastic bags to protect the carpets and wood floors, I was first drawn to the sensory experience of sound: piped-in classical

1 ‘Eid’ is the Arabic / Turkish term for the two major Muslim holidays on the Islamic calendar.

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Fig. 2 The grave of Rumi is covered with an elaborately Fig. 3 Visitors examine objects in museum display embroidered cloth that includes verses of the Qur'an. On cases. top of the grave is a that represents the high spiritual status of Jalal al-Din Rumi.

kitsch portrayal of pre-modern Sufi life, I exited the museum through another turnstile and once again enter modern Konya.[2] Struck by the conflicting uses of the museum, I was led to dig deeper into the history of the Here, I observed visitors stopping for a quiet moment, Sufi lodge and tomb as well as contemporary uses of whispering the Islamic for the dead and requests the museum to understand the nature of contested for intercession on behalf of a sick child or for a safe sacred space in Turkey. journey. The guard insisted they move on, but some pilgrims remained defiantly in , while Located in central Anatolia, Konya is a large city, others snapped photos and moved on to the next station although it is pleasant and feels more like a small town in the Rumi exhibit. After spending time in the tomb, I than a sprawling metropolis. Over the past decades, the entered into the room once used for communal suburbs have encroached upon rural villages and farms and Mevlevi Sufi ‘whirling ’ ceremonies. This and the center of the city is full of low-rise buildings room is now home to ritual objects such as copies of and historic monuments. Despite its modern exterior, the Qur’an and manuscripts of Rumi’s poetry, musical those who know where to look can taste a bit of the old instruments, dervish garments, and prayer mats—all Konya, where the famous mystic and poet Rumi (d. locked beneath glass museum cases. Recently, part of 1273) – known as Mevlana in Turkish – used to live. the room has been opened up to allow for Muslim Annemarie Schimmel, a scholar of Islam who wrote on pilgrims to engage in their prayers, a new addition in recognition of the room’s historical use and perhaps due to a government increasingly influenced by Fig. 4 Wax figures of Mevlevi depict several disci- religion. ples practicing the ritual whirling ceremony.

Exiting the sanctuary, I made my way to another section of the museum, formerly cells where dervishes (Sufi initiates) lived and studied. As soon as I entered the room, the wax mannequins dressed in the garb of dervishes caught my attention. The dummies were forever frozen in time. One was practicing his whirling for an , another was cooking a stew that would never be ready, and one in the corner was practicing penitence on his rickety knees. Taken aback by the

2 Visitors from afar can now go on a virtual tour of the entire Mevlana Museum at the website of the Museum: http://dosyalar.semazen.net/Mevlana/english/a01.htm, as well as at this website: http:// www.3dmekanlar.com/tr/mevlana-muzesi.html.

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the poetry and life of Rumi, visited Konya on middle of Anatolia. Rumi grew up speaking and numerous occasions, and described her impression of writing in Persian and Arabic and was a teacher of the the town: Islamic sciences until he met his Sufi master teacher, Shams al-Din Tabrizi. After meeting Shams al-Din, Revisiting Konya in these days, is on the Rumi became intoxicated with his for and external level, a disappointing experience. One wrote the epic , a six-volume collection of looks in vain for the charms of the old town and Persian poetry comprising more than 50,000 lines. His loses one’s ways among constructions–but followers founded the Mevlevi Sufi order that took despite the enormous crowds that have settled inspiration from the Masnavi and Rumi’s teachings. there, despite the numbers of tourists who throng around the mausoleum, one feels in the Soon after his death in 1273, his disciples donated late evening, especially in the presence of old funds to build his tomb. Although Rumi scholar family friends who preserve their tradition Franklin Lewis suggests that Rumi did not actually without ostentation that Mawlana’s presence want a dome to be built over his tomb so that he would still hovers over the city. (Schimmel, 1997: 67) be venerated after his death, in Aflaki’s biography of Rumi’s life, Manaqib al-Arifin (Biographies of the Viewed from above, the city has a circular shape. In Gnostics), a disciple of Rumi reads Rumi’s written the center lies the Ala al-Din park hill and mosque, will, built by the Turkish Seljuks in the early thirteenth century. From this circular park, which is surrounded Our disciples shall construct our tomb at a high by historic monuments, you can follow Mevlana Street location so that it can be seen from long to the sacred center of Konya, Rumi’s tomb and Sufi distances. Whoever sees our tomb from a lodge, now known as the Mevlana Museum, bordered distance, and believes in our faithfulness will be by three roundabouts in an older neighborhood of the blessed by God. God will meet all the needs and city. Streets that surround Rumi’s mausoleum have wishes of those who come to visit our tomb with names such as Turbe (Tomb) Street, Amil Celebi (an absolute love, perfect honesty, absolute truth, early 20th century Mevlevi shaykh), and other and knowledge. All their wishes, either worldly references to Rumi, his mausoleum, and his Sufi order. or religious will be accepted (Lewis, 2000: Hotels, stores, and bus lines carry the name of 427). Mevlana, and the influence of the great Sufi master pervades every corner of the city, from the to It took one year for the tomb to be built and was a the marketplace. simple dome that drew inspiration from the Armenian churches popular in Anatolia at the time. Inside, the The present-day Mevlana Museum is located on the dome was covered in stucco reliefs and the exterior of site of a garden that was owned by one of Rumi’s the dome in turquoise tiles, which gave its name - the disciples and Rumi often visited it during his lifetime. ‘green dome’ (Lewis, 2000: 427). The turbe, or tomb, Rumi’s father was a religious teacher who had fled the was the sacred center of the entire complex. Other Mongol invasions from their home in Balkh, in present components of the tomb complex included cells for -day Afghanistan, and ended up in Konya, in the dervishes, several courtyards with ablution fountains

Fig. 5 A shrine in the heart of old Konya. Fig. 6 A view of the newer part of central Konya.

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and pools, and an outdoor cemetery. Some of the When examining the case of the Mevlana Museum, it highest-ranking Mevlevis and some of their female is useful to briefly discuss other buildings such as the relatives were buried inside the tomb complex. There Aya Sofia, a former Byzantine church located in was also a small mosque and the semahane, or room that was converted into a mosque by the dedicated to performing sema, which in the Mevlevi Ottoman sultans and then into a museum in 1934 under context specifically refers to the whirling ceremony the Turkish Republic. The museum preserves both the unique to this Sufi order. Byzantine mosaics that had been recently uncovered as well as Islamic ritual features that were added after its Methodological Approach mosque conversion. The museum both glorifies the political legacy of the through its This article draws upon several visits to Konya defeat of the Byzantine Empire, and also presents it in between 2006 and 2009, as well as analysis of text and a secular format in its presentation as a museum media sources that cover aspects of the Mevlana (Shaw, 2007). Similarly, the Topkapi Museum in Museum. Drawing upon an interdisciplinary approach Istanbul, which was once the palace of the Ottoman from within the discipline of religious studies, I sultans, was renovated and museumified in a way to interrogate the museumification of the medieval tomb establish a historical connection between the Turkish of Rumi and adjoining Sufi lodge and argue that the republic and Turkey’s Ottoman past, but also modern Turkish state has attempted to regulate, and maintained proper distance (Shaw, 2007). Shaw goes consequently do away with, the experience and on to argue that unlike museums in the West, presence of the sacred in the museum for its visitors. G.J. Ashworth describes museumification as an Turkish museums, by not using the discourse of alternative to eradicating cultural symbols, or rather, art as a systemic meta-narrative, functioned not through museumification: to bring together material culture into a systemic grand narrative of heritage but rather [the] contemporary meaning of symbols is to provide each aspect of heritage (p.273). neutralized by their interpretations as objects possessing only historic artistic value, the The Mevlana Museum is one of many examples of nature of the message being changed to one that display the Turkish republic’s that has less contemporary social or political attempts to manipulate its connection to the past and relevance (Ashworth, 1998:268). reinterpret religious meaning. Since 1925, the Turkish government has relentlessly fought to control Islamic The process of museumification consists of imposing and Sufi influences and channel people’s devotion national identities onto a conserved heritage site and towards the memory of Ataturk - the ideal Turk - as recreating a heritage site with a specific agenda that well as his secular ideology, and an interest in Turkish conforms to the ideals of the nation. The process history. The state could not prevent people from going considers every place and object connected to a distinct on pilgrimage to the tomb of Rumi, making culture or religion to be an artifact that can be , and sending their greetings at their tomb; preserved and re-presented in an acceptable format, but it could attempt to reconfigure the tomb and although some scholars argue that it ‘distorts, inverts, transform it into a folk heritage museum. Despite its and subverts meanings’ (Dellios, 2001:1). efforts, though, the state has not stopped people from performing pilgrimage to the shrine and experiencing By redesigning Rumi’s tomb complex into a museum, the sacred in the Museum, but they have made it more the Turkish state has sought to secularize the space in difficult for pilgrims to experience the tomb complex order to remove what it perceives to be the shrine’s and Sufi lodge as its patrons originally intended. sacred quality. Despite the state’s best efforts, however, visitors continue to recreate the experience of If Rumi’s shrine is no longer a religious institution by the sacred, while inhibited by the museum setting of name, then what is it? As part of the state’s program to the complex. Many visitors are on a religious modernize Turkey in the 1920s, the state decided to pilgrimage to encounter Rumi, the Sufi , and gain convert the shrine into a museum. Outside of Turkey, . Other visitors venture to the museum to many today - especially ones who interpret learn more about Rumi, the prominent Turk, and the Islam literally - are also uncomfortable with the idea of richness of Turkish folk heritage, or just to see a pilgrims visiting the tomb of a deceased saint, and striking example of a Seljuk-era architectural splendor. would presumably support the state’s measures to The Museum is a carefully regulated peformative place prevent outbursts of devotion and ‘unseemly’ acts of that is in a constant state of change through its in the shrine. So it is possible that the multiplicity of meanings for its visitors. museum format is actually a neutral ground that

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conforms to the demands of the state and Salafi visited Konya numerous times described the spiritual Muslims, while also allowing visitors of any sort to pay connection she had to Konya, their respects to the saint? In this case, how do we interpret the case of the Mevlana Museum, which was I visited it for the first time in the Spring of an active shrine and Sufi lodge-turned-museum? 1952, all by myself, and found it surrounded by a romantic sadness. A thunderstorm caused the Religious studies scholar Chris Arthur proposes that flowers to open; all of a sudden the dusty city exhibits of religion could was filled with the fragrance of the igde bushes and covered with a lovely veil of fresh green- constitute an accurate reflection of the nature ’paradisical garments’, [which] Mawlana of what might be termed postmodern religious [would] call the young leaves for the gardens, experience - diverse, disjointed, disorientating . [which] at the time, reached almost to the . . it [the museum] may become a resource for center of the town (Schimmel, 1997: 62). finding new spiritual harmonies which might resonate with, and make sense of, life in the last And of the masses of tourists she saw who walked years of a discordant century (Arthur, 2000: about with ‘empty eyes’, Schimmel asked, 23). Would they feel something of the presence Rumi’s museumified tomb represents the secularist which we had experienced so often when Turkish approach to religiosity, removing the space visiting the Green Dome along with friends from its original intention while also allowing visitors from all over the world . . . To what extent to produce their own meanings. Furthermore, while would they appreciate the of the Mevlevis, museums in Europe developed alongside the emerging seeing it not merely as a nice and interesting academic discipline of art history, in the context of folkloric performance but rather as an Turkey, museums served the agenda of the state in its expression of the sweetest and deepest secrets efforts to claim a pure and unified sense of Turkish of mystical love (Schimmel, 1997: 64-5)? territoriality, ethnicity, and nationhood (Shaw, 2007). In this way, we can seek to understand a ‘progressive Although Schimmel might have been skeptical about sense of place’, which considers the meaning-making the experience of tourists at the Museum, pilgrims do of a place based on the activities that focus on it not necessarily always fit into her understanding of the instead of establishing an ‘essential identity’ that term. Pilgrims also participate in touristic activities, remains static throughout history (Edensor, 1998: 200). such as sightseeing, picture taking, and souvenir shopping. Just outside of Rumi’s tomb, vendors sell a The Mevlana Museum is both a tourist and a variety of Rumi-themed souvenirs, from the usual pilgrimage destination. The activities of tourists and tourist items with the omnipresent symbol of the pilgrims at the Museum often overlap and the boundary whirling dervish, Sufi music, and postcards, to between tourists and pilgrims becomes blurred. specifically Islamic ritual objects, such as prayer Numerous scholars of tourism studies have concluded beads, prayer carpets, and perfume. Travelers to Konya that it is difficult to draw a clear line between pilgrims have reported seeing souvenirs such as dervish-shaped and tourists, ‘even when the role of pilgrim and tourist chocolates, music boxes and clocks engraved with are combined, they are necessarily different but form a dervishes, and jewelry embossed with dervishes and continuum of inseparable elements’ (Graburn, 1983: Rumi’s portrait (Thrulkill, ND:36). The many visitors 16). Victor and Edith Turner similarly propose that ‘a who make their way to the Mevlana Museum bring tourist is half a pilgrim, if a pilgrim is half a with them their own experiences and perceptions of the tourist’ (Turner & Turner, 1978: 23). space. Consequently, the visitors are important agents in the construction of the space’s multivocal meaning. At Rumi’s tomb, tourists often find themselves The secular Turkish state has implemented changes awestruck by the magnificent collection of ritual inside the Mevlana Museum that have transformed the objects, calligraphy that adorns the wall and other space from a sacred Sufi shrine to a secular museum. decorative elements as well as experience intense Despite the museum setting, many pilgrims are still emotions upon seeing pilgrims praying at the tombs. able to the experience the sacred as intended by the Pilgrims visit the exhibits and learn about Mevlevi original architects of the medieval tomb. history and later pick up a Rumi keychain in the neighboring bazaar. Annemarie Schimmel, the well- For a place to exist, people must construct its meaning. known scholar of Islamic Studies and , who The original construction, deconstruction (in 1926,

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when it was closed), and reconstruction of the Mevlana Bekteshi Sufis were systematically oppressed and their Museum have transformed the space. Nevertheless, network obliterated by Mahmud II’s elimination of the visitors continue to experience the Museum from the Janissary corps, which was closely affiliated to the vantage point of their communities. Ultimately, the order. The Mevlevis were fervent supporters of government’s power to change people’s experience is Mahmud II as well as his reforms and enjoyed limited because visitors to the Museum also play a role privileges that other Sufi orders were denied (Soileau, in the construction of the tomb’s meaning, based on the 2006:). With the rise of the Tanzimat period under Abd lived experiences they bring with them, which al-Majid I, further reforms were implemented in the transcend the external alterations of the shrine-turned- Ottoman Empire to replace traditional institutions with museum. modern ones influenced by Western models (Soileau, 2006). By 1866, the Tanzimat reforms saw the Sufism and Politics: From the Ottoman established of the Council of Shaykhs, which encompassed all of the lodges and orders and placed Empire to the Republic of Turkey them under the control of the Shaykh al-Islam, or the leader of religious affairs for the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk (d. 1938) was certainly not the first ruler in Under direct jurisdiction of the government, the central Turkey to assert his control over religious, and in lodge controlled smaller lodges. The state safeguarded particular, Sufi institutions. Under Ottoman rule, Sufi its power by providing funds to the lodges, controlling orders, including the founded by Rumi’s private donations, and putting employees of the lodges son, were patronized by the ruling elite and received an on its salary (Soileau, 2006). The Mevlevi order elevated status in society. They provided education to continued to receive favor from the state even up to the the children of the elite and also were responsible for , when they formed a voluntary regiment developing the Sufi literary tradition as well as of soldiers called the Mevlevi Warriors (Soileau, propagating Persian poetry (Lapidus, 1992). Mevlevi 2006). Sufis also wrote their poetry and writings in Turkish and contributed to the rich cultural legacy of the When Ataturk first took control after becoming the Ottomans (Soileau, 2006). While the Mevlevi order president of the newly minted Turkish Republic, he started out mainly as a rural Sufi order, by the late involved Sufi leaders in his decisions regarding Sufi sixteenth century, it had become more institutionalized orders. In 1920, when he organized the first National and gained popularity in urban areas. Assembly, he chose the head of the Mevlevi order to represent the city of Konya (Soileau, 2006: 303). After Mevlevi shaykhs were able to foster relationships with Ataturk transformed Turkey into a secular republic, rulers and the elite; even Sultan Selim III joined the organized Sufism quickly went underground and Sufi order and participated in Mevlevi ceremonies (Soileau, lodges, shrines, , and religious courts were 2006). The order developed an elaborate hierarchical closed and Sufism officially became ‘illegal’. A 1925 system and laid out a formula for advancing students law proposed by Ataturk entitled the ‘suspension of along the Sufi path. Students practiced distinct pious foundations and religious titles, the banning of that were intended to help them reach certain stations mystical societies and displays of dervishes and the in the path (Soileau, 2006). Mevlevi dervishes also suspension of Sufi hostels [lodges]’, and outlined the wore special clothing to distinguish themselves, with specific restrictions that were imposed by the state onto variances based on their spiritual and hierarchical Turkish Sufis: ranking (Soileau, 2006). While Sufi orders and their institutions functioned on a relatively independent Article 1: All of the Sufi hospices in the basis with elite patronage, the Ottoman Empire later Republic of Turkey, whether pious endowments, sought to consolidate its authority and to centralize the personal property of shaykhs . . . will be closed government by forcing rulings on the lodges. As early and the right of ownership suspended . . . The as 1812, Sultan Mahmud II issued rulings that graves of sultans and the shrines of dervishes regulated and controlled all Sufi lodges in the Ottoman are closed and the occupation of shrine Empire. The rulings helped the rulers keep a tight custodian is voided. All persons who reopen watch over the politics of the orders in order to stem closed-down Sufi hospices, hostels, or shrines, any rebellion and keep the leaders of the orders under or those people who use mystical titles to their control, as well as maintain authority over the attract followers or serve them, will be financial affairs of the lodges. sentenced to at least three months in prison and a fine of 50 lira (Lewis, 2000: 465). Despite being regulated, the Mevlevi Sufis gained substantial political favor from the rulers when the

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The situation was so serious that many of the lodges and admit that their disciples have descendants of Rumi, including the last shaykh of the grown up (Soileau, 2006:246). order and many followers, fled Turkey and settled in Aleppo, Syria, where they could freely practice Sufism. According to Ataturk, if a Sufi shaykh’s goal was to guide his disciples towards worldly and spiritual Ataturk made the practice of Sufism a crime, and any happiness, then logically, there was no more need for person who claimed to be a shaykh or disciple, or who organized Sufi orders because modern civilization played any kind of role in a Sufi order, was deemed a could fulfill this goal even better and more efficiently. criminal and sentenced to a minimum of three months in jail. Furthermore, men were forbidden to wear the Ataturk reflects his hostile views towards organized traditional headdress and women were forced to Sufi orders in this blunt statement: ‘May it be well- remove their headscarves in public (Al-Fers). Ataturk known to all, that the Turkish Republic is no place for and his administration led a modernization project in sheikhs, their disciples, and sympathizers’ (Kezer, an attempt to imitate Western culture and society with 2000: 109). Perhaps, he presumed, by relegating the goal to achieve ‘contemporary civilization’, important places of mysticism and religion to glass wherein modernization equaled Westernization. museum cases and behind velvet cordons, he could Ataturk asserted that Islam represented ‘a set of contain the spread of what he saw as superstitious and traditions, values, legal rules, and norms which were backwards beliefs and practices. Ataturk stressed that intrinsically non-Western in character’ (Soileau, 2006: people whose 225). Ataturk’s first mission was to build a completely new institutional foundation of the government, and he mentalities that [were] incapable of accepting singled out Ottoman religious institutions. He the revolutionary drive to modernize and abolished the position of the caliphate, sent the civilize the nation [would] be irrevocably Ottoman dynasty into exile, and dismantled the purged [because it was not possible] to bring religious courts (Soileau, 2006). the light of truth into the of such people (Kezer, 2000: 109). The original 1924 Turkish constitution permitted all religious ceremonies and declared that Ataturk assumed that by developing the economy of Turkey as well as promoting urbanization and no one may be censured on account of his modernization, the cultural practices of Turks would religion, sect, Sufi orders, or philosophical quickly evolve towards a Western model according to convictions. As long as they are not contrary to what he called ‘the nation's manifest path toward the public order, the ethics of social relations, modern civilization’ (Gulalp, 2003: 382). and the decree of the laws, the performance of every type of religious ceremony is free In Turkey, therefore, secularism has been imposed (Soileau, 2006:245). from the top down and closely monitored and controlled by the state (Gulalp, 2003). Despite attempts Yet after a rebellion broke out with a Naqshabandi to suppress Sufis, many followers managed to keep the Kurdish shaykh at its head in early 1925, Ataturk tradition alive in private homes. Over many centuries, began a harsh attack on all Sufi orders. In one speech the rich tradition of Islam in Ottoman Turkey was he made his attitude towards Sufi orders very clear: imbibed with Turkish, Persian, and Arab influence. The Ottoman heritage was kept alive by Turks despite In the face of knowledge, science, and of the the rise of the Turkish Republic and continues to play a whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot significant social and communal identity in the accept the presence in Turkey’s civilized collective memory of the nation (Gulalp, 2003). These community of people primitive enough to seek changes have fundamentally transformed the material and spiritual benefits in the guidance appearance of the religious landscape of Turkey until of sheikhs. The Turkish republic cannot be a the present day. country of sheikhs, dervishes and disciples. The best, the truest order is the order of Constructing Memories of Rumi Civilization. To be a man it is enough to carry out the requirements of civilization. The leaders In Turkey, not just Rumi’s tomb and the related Sufi of dervish orders will understand the truth of order have become secularized. Scholars and my words, and will themselves close down their government-sponsored efforts have also moved to remodel Rumi’s identity and message. Over the years,

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he went from representing a Persian-speaking Muslim nation. The nation that has tombs is a nation from Balkh to a Turkish universalist and humanistic that has a past. The nation that visits and mystic who spread a message of tolerance, peace, love, remembers with respect its tombs is a society and brotherhood (although not necessarily informed by that respects its past in national terms (Guzel, his deeply religious background). Nationalist 1998). intellectuals also engaged in a campaign to rewrite the biographies of a number of other Muslim and At an early stage in the formation of the Turkish Sufi poets, including Bektash Veli and Yunus Republic, Turkey’s leaders sought to increasingly Emre (Soileau, 2006). regulate aspects of people’s lives to ensure cohesive and universal adherence to newly created laws, According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and regulations and customs (Kezer, 2000: 101-2). The Tourism, the Mevlevi Order believes in the government sought for complete cultural integration ‘brotherhood of all humanity’ and holds women in high and sought to eliminate components of society that esteem. But rather than focus on the Islamic and they viewed as threatening towards building a new, mystical aspect of Rumi and his Sufi order, the modern society - such as Sufi lodges. They believed Ministry chose to categorize this topic under folk they would be able to ensure the future of the Republic culture, and even the wording of the title of the online by erasing parts of Turkish culture and religion from article ‘Turkish Humanism and Anatolian Muslim the public view. The leaders therefore rewrote Saints (Dervishes)’ reflects this agenda (Turkish Turkey’s history and future, spinning tales to Ministry of Culture and Tourism, n.d.). The article goes on to stress the universal teachings of Rumi and fabricate venerable pasts that never were, and Haji Bektash, the eponymous inspiration of the to erase collective remembrances that Bekteshi Sufi order, and their interactions with both challenged official ideology (Kezer, 2000: 103). Muslims and non-Muslims. Haji Bektesh, for example, is noted for having lived among Christians in Anatolia, Turkey’s ideologues combined aspects of Turkish and an article on the website of the Turkish Ministry of culture they deemed ‘safe’ with modernist values Culture and Tourism claims that his educational imported from the ‘West,’ such as secularism and activities played an important role in creating ‘cultural democracy (Soileau, 2006: 9-10). integrity’ in the region. Haji Bektesh is especially important, as the article argues, because his work Ataturk was fond of Rumi and once stated that Rumi influenced Ataturk to establish a secular and was democratic country that respects human rights (Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, n.d.). The article a mighty reformer, who had adapted Islam to makes an effort to establish the universalist perspective the Turkish (Al-Fers n.d.). of Rumi’s thought, and while it does somewhat acknowledge Rumi’s Islamic background, the author stresses the humanist principles found in Rumi’s poetry Fig. 7 Traditional Muslim prayer beads that contain 1,000 and his associations with non-Muslims as well as beads each would have been used by Mevlevi Sufis in all- Muslims. The emphasis on Rumi as a humanist night remembrance ceremonies. Now they are placed under carefully connects him to the European notion of glass cases in the museum for visitors to gaze upon. humanism at a critical juncture in Turkish history.

The Turkish state ultimately used the figure of Rumi to help carry out its political agenda and developed a way has argued that tombs help support the communal memory of a country’s past, positing that

while tombs - graves or shrines that are visited - usually belong to one person, those who visit them are an entire nation. Thus, tombs and places of visitation are not of persons, but of the nation. The person whose site has become a tomb has now become the property of the

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Upon visiting Konya, Ataturk exclaimed, Ataturk made an exception for the lodge in Konya in 1926, saying that due to its ‘architectural and Whenever I come to this city I feel excitement ethnographic value’ (Al-Fers) it should be made into a inside. The thought of Mevlana envelops me. He museum instead of being boarded up. Despite his was a great genius, an innovator for all ages concessions, Ataturk warned the head Mevlevi leader (Al-Fers, n.d.). of Konya about the future of Sufism, declaring,

During his visit, Ataturk also toured the tomb complex You, the Mevlevis have made a great difference of Rumi and watched a performance of whirling by combating ignorance and religious dervishes. Interestingly enough, when he toured the fundamentalism for centuries, as well as tomb complex, he already had a plan in . After making contributions to science and the arts. seeing all of the beautiful ritual objects and art in the However we are obliged not to make any lodge, he decided that they would look even better in a exceptions and must include Mevlevi Sufi museum collection. lodges. Nonetheless, the ideas and teaching of Mevlana will not only exist forever, but they After 1925, all lodges in Turkey were declared state will emerge even more powerfully in the future property and subsequently closed, while their (Al-Fers). belongings were moved to ethnographic museums. Most Sufi lodges were eventually converted into Apparently, Ataturk had a plan to appropriate the mosques, museums, and other public and private figure of Rumi for his own purposes of creating new institutions, and completely stripped of any signs memories of Turkish culture and history. As part of the relating to their original function. This aided the plan, the Ministry of Education also supported a process of ‘modernization’ by delegating ritual objects project to translate all of Rumi’s work into Turkish, from Sufi lodges to ethnographic museums, where they thus ensuring Rumi’s legacy (International Mevlana were deemed to be remnants of Turkey’s folk heritage Foundation). (Shaw, 2007: 267). One of the reasons that the rulers privileged the Mevlevi Order over other Sufi orders was because the Fig. 8 The Turkish flag flies above the entrance of the state saw it as an elite tradition that did not necessarily Mevlana Museum to symbolize the national identity of oppose modernity (Kafadar, 1992: 312). As long as the Museum. certain practices were omitted in order to conform to modern beliefs, then Mevlevis were allowed to function under the close supervision of the state. The centuries-long relationship between the Mevlevis and the state continued after Ataturk, and the Mevlana Museum remains in many ways intact, instead of meeting the fate of the thousands of other lodges in the country. Despite this, the compromise made by the Mevlevi Order forever changed their nature and the communal memory of Rumi.

Experiencing the Sacred in a Museum

In order to understand the nature of the sacred at the Mevlana Museum, it is useful to take Jonathan Z. Smith’s theory of ritual place into consideration. For Smith, place is the construction of the sacred itself rather than a reaction to the sacred. He contends that space is a ritual response to the presence of the sacred in time and space (Smith, 1987: 45). As Smith sees it,

human beings are not placed, they bring place into being; the experience of the sacred is not derived from the place itself, but rather from

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the social signs that give the place meaning Museums can be used as weapons of defense against (Smith, 1987: 28). what some would label pre-modern superstitions. Dean MacCannell, a geographer, sociologist, and landscape Smith’s view seems to limit the role of space and architect, speculates that museums objects themselves in people’s lives as he gives complete agency to human actors. I assert that material establish in the definition and culture and architecture also play important roles in boundary of modernity by rendering concrete mapping out how people interact with space and how and immediate that which modernity is not the sacred comes into being. Humans bring structures (MacCannell, 1976: 84). into , but people from diverse backgrounds can experience them differently. The layout of this Fundamentally, a museum teaches its audience that museum causes pilgrims to also experience it as a what is contained within its confines is part of the tourist and tourists to experience the Museum as a historical memory of a culture that can be appreciated pilgrim. Furthermore, the experience of the sacred is but is no longer relevant to modern society. not only derived from the sensory experience of place MacCannell asserts that the function of the museum in itself, but also from the social signs that give the place modern society and meaning. In this way, people create meaning. the best indication of the final victory of In the case of the Mevlana Museum, the Ministry of modernity over other sociocultural Tourism and the curators of the Museum, under arrangements is not the disappearance of the directions from the Turkish State, have attempted to non-modern world but its artificial preservation control the museum. Despite the state’s intentions to and conservation in modern society create a site of historical significance, it neglected to (MacCannell, 1976: 84). take into account people’s subjective experience, , and memory of Rumi. In order to gain insight into how The Turkish government followed this pattern of power is manifested in space and people experience the thinking, proposing to impose modernity on Turkish sacred, David Morgan offers a helpful concept called culture by the museumification of sacred spaces, such ‘the history of practice,’ which can be understood as as the Mevlana Museum. the history that people bring to things (Morgan, 2010: 65). In this way, objects and architecture contribute to Contestation over space happens whenever one or the construction of space and signify a sacred space, more parties have a stake in the same place, and both drawing devotees’ attention to a central point (Morgan, groups attempt to construct meaning. The struggle over 2006: 56). Thus, instead of just deconstructing space space can involve issues of ownership or control, or and analyzing how humans create space, we need to even more subtly, may involve a also study the dynamics of human interaction with space and material objects. rhetorical battle over the specific meaning of a place. The social aspects of a place thus plays Naturally, the rhetorical powers of a space can change itself out in the discursive outcome of these over time ‘as its meanings shift for the individuals and never-ending attempts to define and control the communities who find it distinctive’ (Bremer, 2006: site (Bremer, 2006: 27). 27). Ataturk claimed, ‘it is a disgrace for a civilized society to appeal for help from the dead’ (Soileau, Places encompass the pasts, presents, and futures of 2006: 247). Therefore, within the confines of the their meaning, so in the case of the Mevlana Museum, state’s ideology, the (only) acceptable purpose for inspired by nationalist rhetoric, the state ensured that Turks to visit Rumi’s tomb was to foster national pride the past purpose of the museum shifted. by learning about ‘important Turkish figures.’ From this perspective, there would be no problem for Rumi’s People can have different experiences in the same shrine to become the ‘the non-exclusive property of the place, which Thomas Bremer has called the nation,’ in that it contains an important Turkish ‘simultaneity of places’ (Bremer, 2006: 27). Visitors to heritage site that is also relevant to people from around the Mevlana Museum occupy the same space at the the world (Soileau, 2006: 262). As a result of this same time, but their experiences and interpretations of policy, Rumi’s tomb has endured a complete paradigm the space’s significance may vary greatly. The museum shift, from a regional sacred Sufi site to a point of therefore remains a sacred space but at the same time is historical and cultural interest for an entire nation and also a touristic and secular space. beyond.

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The phenomenon of regulating sacred space is not unique to the Mevlana Museum, and sacred spaces Fig. 10 Foreign visitors wait at the threshold enter around the world have undergone the process of the crowded tomb room, where Rumi's grave is museumification. Such spaces include the USS located. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, the Aya Sophia in Istanbul, the Taj Mahal in Agra, and the Forbidden City in Beijing. Canterbury Cathedral in London, which also falls unto the category of regulated sacred space, provides an especially productive comparison with the Mevlana Museum: while the Cathedral is a historically important destination of pilgrimage in the mainly unchurched country of England, it retains its sacred qualities while functioning as a museum at the same time. The curators are careful to control the experience of the visitor and set up cordons to keep visitors at a safe distance from especially sacred areas and objects and to maintain a solemn environment. Christian pilgrims hold the site where St. Thomas of Canterbury was martyred in great reverence. In response to what administrators saw as inappropriate expressions of veneration, the area was cordoned off:

roping off this most holy of places was a ‘heritage’ decision: it tells us that this spot is not for potentially embarrassing or damaging histrionic demonstrations of religious fervor, but for respectful gazing from a distance. A prime aim of traditional museums has been to Intrinsic to the museum experience is the distancing of preserve, and to keep the view at a distance in the viewer from the experience of the sacred. order to facilitate that preservation. The Canterbury Cathedral continues to functions as a space presence of these ropes, like crowd barriers at for religious rituals–it holds daily services– royal visits, turns the cathedral into more of a and as a pilgrimage destination, although it has museum, and less of a holy place (Durrans, accommodated tourists by modifying the physical 2000: 218). layout to make it familiar to visitors interested in learning about its history and architecture. In this way, Fig. 9 Turkish Muslims perform ritual ablutions at the fountain visitors can experience the Cathedral in different ways. in the courtyard of the Museum before entering the tomb It places both sacred and secular objects safely behind chamber of Rumi. Muslims typically perform this ritual before entering a mosque or shrine. glass display cases and keeps visitors at a distance from displays. Pilgrims are also tourists and their interaction with the sacred is regulated by the museumified context.

The situation in Konya is very similar to that of Canterbury Cathedral, where many of the pilgrims greet Rumi as if he were alive in his grave, read from the Qur’an, and make supplications at the foot of his tomb. At the same time, museum guards are stationed throughout the museum and their job is to ensure that people do not linger at the graves in the tomb area. Despite government attempts to regulate the crowd, many visitors pay no heed to the guards and spend their time in prayers. Although it is forbidden to perform the five daily prayers in the museum, Muslims have been known to pray in hidden corners of the museum.

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Afterhours, Sufi groups who have connections to reviewers write about their surprise - sometimes government and museum officials, hold worship unease and sometimes fascination - in encountering circles, illustrating that many visitors continue to religious pilgrims at the shrine who seemingly venerate experience and construct the sacred in the Museum the tomb of Rumi. Other reviewers were uninspired by (Safi, 2010, and Davidson, 2002: 321). One scholar the museum exhibits and do not mention the devotional reports visiting the Museum on a holiday and despite atmosphere by the tomb (TripAdvisor). finding it closed, witnessed people praying (or perhaps supplicating) outside the Museum’s walls (Vicente, Part of the draw for many visitors appears to be the 2007: 37). ability of being able to immerse oneself in the rituals of another religious tradition, one that they might not Hundreds of English-language online blogs, articles, experience back home. In this way, the Mevlana and poetry from foreign visitors and pilgrims describe Museum not only offers visitors a chance to learn their experience at the Museum. Some visitors espouse about the history of the Mevlevi Order and Rumi’s life the universal themes of love and tolerance that can be but also to witness a living tradition. Therefore, for found in Rumi’s poetry while others are not as many visitors, it is both the Museum and the people impressed. who visit the Museum which comprise the main attraction. These online reviews reflect the multivalent One Australian journalist reflects on her tour of the nature of the Museum, illustrating how a single place Museum: can have a multiplicity of meanings for different people who visit the Museum. Inside is a different world, strangely beautiful and decidedly holy. Hazy sunlight filters We can clearly see how the organization, layout, and through stained-glass windows onto the material composition of the Mevlana Museum reflect mausoleum's tiled walls creating a kaleidoscope this concept and how the struggle of the Turkish of opulent hues and mysterious patterns . . . Republic to maintain control over sacred space has Everything is exquisite. Everything is divine. All been embodied in the museum. While at Muslim around is a sense of hushed awe like that shrines around the world pilgrims engage in practices shared by a wedding congregation when a to pay their respects to the saint and offer vows, the beautiful bride walks among them (Sydney official Turkish ideology holds that these rituals are Morning Herald, 2010). backwards and based on superstition. Despite the best attempts of curators to strip the Mevlana Museum of One popular travel website which has been examined, its power and sacredness, many visitors are able to includes 165 user reviews of the Mevlana Museum, experience the sacred nature of the space and to feel as offering brief perspectives from people who visited the if they were in a Sufi lodge and shrine and not a Museum from around the world. One reviewer museum celebrating Turkey’s national heritage comments on the sacred aspect of the place,

More a shrine than museum. Interesting place– Fig. 11 Professional ‘Mevlevi’ actors perform the Mevlevi mostly for watching the reverence the local whirling dervish ceremony on a daily basis outside of the people gave to the shrines Mevlana Museum complex. and another person calls it a place for pilgrims and lovers of Rumi.

Another review recommends readers to experience the sacred during their visit along with the audio tour,

Visit not just to see the beautiful architecture and splendid scenery, but to immerse yourself in a crowd of religious pilgrims, there to see the tomb of Rumi.

One reviewer describes her experience of the Museum as a sacred space, but remarks that she felt like an intruder amidst the people involved in prayers. Many

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(Bremer, 2006: 29). Secular Turks, including Will the tomb rise up into the starry heavens schoolchildren who visit the museum on fieldtrips, as themselves—its turquoise dome entering well as non-Muslim foreigners who visit Konya as part dimension after dimension - each glowing in of their package tours around the country, experience Konya? the shrine in a variety of different ways. Am I expecting too much - O faint heart - or am I expecting too little? Many people are aware of the importance of Rumi as a Will the tomb of Rumi be silent as stone or famous mystical poet but have little or no knowledge softly echoing in Konya? about Rumi’s role as a Muslim religious and legal Will I see Rumi face to face at some moment in scholar, Sufi guide, and Muslim saint. A secular Turk some way and forever after my heart be like would be interested in visiting the Mevlana Museum to an open ocean rowing in Konya? learn more about the life of a great ‘Turk.’ Other Some saints leave traces - some saints leave visitors - Turks and foreigners alike - would be majestic mountains - Rumi’s stature with God interested in visiting the ‘museum,’ in order to obtain a whole world seems to be shadowing from baraka, or blessings, from Rumi and his descendants Konya, and followers buried in the museum. In addition to When we step off the bus will my feet tingle? package tourists and pilgrims, the Turkish government Will I hear the hammer beating the copper often brings visiting foreign dignitaries to the Museum Rumi heard - its heart-pulse bestowing on to expose them to a sanitized and romantic version of Konya? (Moore, 2002) Turkish Sufism. The Turkish government also brings many of its foreign dignitaries to visit the Mevlana For Moore, and other Sufis, the Mevlana Museum is Museum. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of merely a façade that contains the remains of a saint and Cornwall were given a VIP tour of the Museum in is the site of miraculous events and visions. Moreover, 2007 and also watched a whirling dervish ceremony. there are stories of Sufi and non-Sufi Turks as well as Prince Charles’s remarks after his visit reflect the foreign Sufis who temporarily claim the space of the attraction of Rumi’s tomb on a universal level: Mevlana Museum as their own Sufi lodge where they perform the whirling ceremony - flash mob style - What better place than here near the resting during the opening hours of the museum. In one video, place of Mevlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi to what appears to be a group of foreign pilgrims in rededicate ourselves to the purpose of re- various types of modest and less modest dress, women acquiring an understanding heart and a and men start whirling together among the museum rebalance of the East and West in ourselves . . . display cases in the room known as the semahane, or At this crucial time in history we need to look room of whirling ceremonies (Mevlana Müzesi, 2008). very closely at the values our modern world In another video, officially sanctioned whirling now exposes and consider the extent to which dervishes, sponsored by the Turkish government to they enable us to live more integrated and perform for tourists inside Turkey and around the sustainable lives (BBC News, 2007). world, turn around the semahane (Mevlana Sema 5, 2007). Visitors of all stripes - Muslim and non-Muslim - experience the museum on multiple levels: they can In the film, the display cases and ritual objects have learn about the history of the Mevlevi order, pick up been removed from the room for the performance. The some souvenirs, and recite a prayer at Rumi’s grave, all carpet that usually covers the floor is gone, revealing in the same visit. the slick wooden floor that was purpose-made for turning. Produced as a way of promoting tourism to For Sufis in particular, their visits to the Museum are Konya by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the often part of a journey to a sacred place where great video attempts to recreate the Mevlevi sema ceremony Sufi masters once worshiped as well as the resting in what used to be the original room built for the ritual, place of Rumi. Daniel -Hayy Moore, an but is now of course part of the secularized museum American Sufi poet, reflects the anticipation he felt setting. This room was specifically designed so that before entering the sacred space of Rumi’s tomb in a when the dervishes participated in the turning poem entitled ‘Going to Konya,’ ceremony, they would pay homage to the shaykh on an axis with the tomb of Rumi. They believed that this Will Mevlana be tall or short, visible or would ensure that Rumi was present in during the invisible? sema (Tanman, 1992: 132). The situation proves ironic Will he greet me as I enter his tomb, his smile and shows the struggle of the government to represent like a sweet breeze blowing through Konya?

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the ‘authentic’ Sufi tradition in a carefully controlled the construction of places, as place and identity are environment, but in a way that is not overly Islamic or interdependent. Modernity has dramatically altered the religious. The government often refers to the whirling discourse of sacred space in Turkey. While it thrived as ceremony as a type of Sufi ‘folk dance’ practiced by a center of religious training under the patronage of the ‘folk dancers.’ Notwithstanding the intentions of the Ottomans, with the establishment of the secular organizers, many Sufi dancers speak of entering an Turkish Republic, the Mevlana Museum was ecstatic state while performing and audience members transformed to go along with the new ideology of also have described experiencing the sacred while Ataturk’s reformations. Mark Soileau argues that the watching the dance. saint ‘can be a mirror of history, reflecting change,’ which demonstrates how the perception of Rumi has Conclusion altered over time (Soileau, 2006: 12). The Mevlana Museum itself mirrors the past of the Ottoman Empire Over the years, the Turkish government has supported as well as the present and future of the Turkish the commodification of Rumi and his legacy as a result Republic. of the confluence of Turkish secularism and the state’s capitalizing on the world’s obsession with Rumi. A As Eileen Hooper-Greenhill argues, large portion of Konya residents benefit from the Rumi economy as well as others around the country involved as long as museums and galleries remain the in producing and selling dervish-themed products and repositories of artifacts and specimens, new whirling dervish shows. As Thomas Bremer, a scholar relationships can always be built, new of religious studies, has pointed out in a study on meanings can always be discovered, new religious tourism: interpretations with new relevancies can be found (Hooper-Greenhill, 1992:215). the touristic way of experiencing the world also relies on a modern aesthetic sense. By tracing the transformations of this museum, one can Consequently, tourists serve as consumers in a parse how the perceived meanings and construction of marketplace of aesthetically pleasing the shrine-turned-museum have changed over time and experiences (Bremer, 2006: 32). reflect changing attitudes in Turkish politics and society. The meaning-making of place also deals with Tourists seek out ‘authentic’ destinations and the the formation of identities and is intimately connected Ministry of Culture and Tourism has done a good job with the construction of place. What Rumi would have of appealing to this need by keeping the Mevlevi said about the Mevlana Museum is anyone’s guess, but traditions alive, albeit through the discourse of culture one can be sure that he would not have prevented and ethnography. anyone from visiting his shrine, including secular tourists, as reflected in a Persian verse of Rumi’s The Mevlana Museum is both a sacred space and poetry that is posted at the entrance to his shrine/ touristic place, for as Bremer demonstrates, museum,

touristic concerns and religious interests This shrine is the Ka`bah of the lovers, respond to and reinforce each other, thus All who come here lacking, find completion. producing a meaningful sacred site (Bremer, 2006: 33).

Tourists enjoy experiencing a religious place that educates them about times past, and their interest in the Museum ensures that it remains open and accessible. Despite its museum setting, the space functions as a setting for rituals and maintains a certain level of reverence for the sacred, with the intention of encouraging reflection and education (Duncan, 1995: 10).

As the case of the Mevlana Museum shows, the making of place, and in particular sacred place, also deals with the making of identities, and the construction of identity is intimately connected with

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Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (n.d.) ‘Turkish Humanism and Anatolian Muslim Saints (Dervishes).’ Available at: http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN,35148/turkish- humanism-and-anatolian-muslim-saints-dervishes.html. Turner VT and Turner EB (1978) Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press. Vicente VA (2007) ‘The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi.’ Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park. Filmography Youtube.com. (2008)’Mevlana Müzesi’ Available at: http:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=Tm0_II23PQk&feature=youtube_gdata_player. Youtube.com. (2007). ‘Mevlana Sema 5’ Available at: http:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=rre4HZi4pi8&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

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